Toshiba HDBD-XA3?

Where's the "They're too smart to get into BD!" option?

The question should be "Should Toshiba...."

I don't think they will, but they should.

Not even worth wasting brain power on really...Toshiba and all others are out of the HD DVD player business period........Wish all one may, Blu-ray is the present and "near future" of High Def disc media.....HD DVD had a nice run, but all you will be able to get is players that have been made already, not new ones.

Time to give up the fight and dreams of what once was....

(this is coming from someone with over 100 HD DVDs) I have moved on, no use of even trying to play the hopes and dreams game any more it was said and done when HD DVD fist threw in the towel.

Unless there will be better 'event' content distributed, I haven't bought a BR since Dark Knight came out this summer.
Content drives all the purchases.
In a bad economy with no consistent good material released, that is a bad combo.

As it seems there really is no talk about Hi-def material in the general media to stimulate public demand.

It will never happen for a combo HD DVD/BD player. I voted NO for both the combo and the individual BD player but after some thought I think they may come around for a blu-ray player standalone...maybe.

I would love to see a Tosh BD player, but I'm not too optimistic. I can almost visualize them feverishly trying to develop something cutting edge, as long as it's not Blu. Almost seems like they're waiting for Blu-ray to run it's course and then they'll jump on the next new thing.

Who knows how deep the wounds are from the format war??? But, maybe they'll fool me and when we eventually get a wave of $99 BD players, some will be sporting the Toshiba logo.

Mike T

+1

Personally I think the "too stubborn" option is closest to how I see it but worded all wrong.

I don't see them making a Blu-ray player because I don't think any of the CE corps can really make any money from Blu-ray.
It's not a stubborn attitude it's just hard experience from having their fingers burnt with HD DVD.
Why throw good money after bad?

I would love top see them make a 'God' device capable of playing everything or almost everything out there (CD, DVD-Audio, SACD, DVD, Divx/Xvid, HD DVD, Blu-ray, .mkv and with decent SATA & USB inputs for HDD & flash drive use) but we all know they aren't going to.
No-one is.
At least, I mean to say, I would be completely stunned if they did.....and then I'd rush to buy one after I recovered.

If only.

It doesn't make sense for Toshiba to get into BRD at this point. DVD is a cash cow for Toshiba, their money at this point is in trying to prolong that format for as long as possible and get HD media in general at bay until they are ready to unveil something for the post BD generation.

They will only get into BD after it is established as the successor to DVD. Until it crosses that threshold they will hold out

#1 HD DVD is dissolved. If Toshiba had any plans whatsoever of this, they would not have dissolved HD DVD as they did. Not gonna happen.

#2 Toshiba will likely never make a Blu-ray player. Consider it their way of protecting the DVD market which is their most important media investment going forward. They will never get a decent share of the Blu-ray royalties pie, thus it does not make much sense for them to do anything but try and drag out DVD as long as possible. BD will likely be the last physical media (unless flash memory dramatically drops and that somehow becomes more functional than downloads/vod - unlikely). Thus Toshiba is likely looking to get a piece of the digital download and/or flash set top box pie at this point.

IMO, at the rate things are going, Toshiba will likely be successful at keeping DVD alive in the long run - it will likely coexist with BD. One of the reasons I rooted for HD DVD is because I knew that was the only format that had a chance of completely replacing DVD (via single stocking twindiscs, or the like - essentially "forcing" people to buy HD DVD instead of a standard DVD special edition).

Good point! A couple of years ago, this is how I also envisioned things shaking down. I could be wrong here but while I love BD, I still feel that somehow things would have been more stable if HD was the reigning format??? But it's a moot point because for better or worse, BD is currently the best hi-def format.

Mike T

I thought the same thing. I imagined if HDDVD had won the twin discs would become standard format (not the flipper discs, but those 3 layer discs (2 HDDVD, 1 DVD on the same side) that Toshiba was working on. They could effectively "force" everyone to buy the HD and DVD on the same disc for every movie, and people could choose whether or not they cared for the HD media.

Of course the problem with this really neat theory is that Sony owns their own picture studio, and Toshiba does not. So Sony, Columbia, MGM (at the time) could have potentially drug their feet for years had bluray lost.

The best solution would have been to avoid the format war. BRD/HDDVD/whatever they called it would have bene much better off than BRD is today.